


Blue-Bibles

by starknjarvis



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Journalism, OC, Steve has opinions about porn, Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-12 23:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16881105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starknjarvis/pseuds/starknjarvis
Summary: By now, reporters should know better than to assume they know how Steve will answer any question.--Or, the one where Steve has opinions about Tumblr's porn ban.





	Blue-Bibles

If one more conservative reporter asked Steve Rogers– _Captain America_ –a leading question trying to get him to support their movement, Katie was going to scream. Did the other reporters at this press conference not remember that this guy had fought  _actual Nazis_? That his best friend (and alleged boyfriend, though no one was brave enough to ask questions about  _that_ ) had been captured and tortured by a Nazi fringe group?

If Katie was reading him right–and, though she’d only been out of journalism school for three years, she knew she was great at reading people– Cap was also about one question away from losing it. 

Steve Rogers had a great face for media, in every sense possible. She’d watched his old USO reels when she’d been given this assignment. He was used to performing for a crowd. After all the bad press he’d gotten a few years ago when he was technically an international fugitive, he was back on the world’s good side after bringing half of them back from death. Unfortunately for him, their good side wasn’t good enough to keep the Avengers functioning, so Cap had been volunteered for regular press conferences to keep the public informed. 

It made sense. Rogers was the only surviving Avenger with any history of interacting with the press that didn’t involve a) openly laughing at the US government or b) threatening to kill a reporter if they got too close.

But  _wow_  did people not understand this man. Yes, Jim from Fox News, we know that you grew up being told that Cap was the perfect all-American hero that every red-blooded boy should emulate. But trying to trick him into agreeing that immigrant children should be locked up was a wasted effort.

When Steve finished his firm answer assuring the gathered that he  _still_  stood for the vows of asylum written on the Statue of Liberty, Katie raised her hand.

Damn it, but she was tired of this. Tired of seeing him cornered and beaten down by reporters who didn’t understand that he’d saved the world a dozen times, and that he was a better man than the old propaganda had claimed.

They all deserved a break from the interrogation. 

To her surprise, Rogers picked her. 

She stood up, and was surprised to find her hands were shaking a bit. She should have planned a question in advance. She’d just wanted him to talk to someone who understood him! Why had she done this? Good God, those blue eyes were intense when all their focus was on one person. 

She cleared her throat. “Thank you, Captain Rogers. Katie Kaufman,  _Gemini Magazine_.” She searched her mental rolodex of recent events, slightly desperately. “How do you feel, uh, about… the recent decision of Tumblr.com to ban all pornographic content?”

She sat back down. Very quickly. 

The man next to her, an older staple of the circuit who had already sent a disparaging look at her bright pink hair, groaned quietly.

“Thank you for your question,” said Rogers politely. 

Oh no, she’d just asked Captain America about porn. Would he implode? Was she going to be kicked out of this field completely?

“I didn’t actually think to hope someone might ask me that, but I’m glad you did,” he continued. Was he kidding? There was an unexpected…fire in his eyes. “I have a story I want to tell.”

The crowd leaned forward slightly. 

“I grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, struggling to keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach. My mother died when I was still a young man, and I was desperate for extra funds to help cover her funeral. Do you know what I did?”

He gazed over the audience, serious. 

“Do you know the best way for a struggling young artist to get enough money to pay for their rent? Do you?”

Oh my God. 

Oh my God. Was this going where Katie thought it was going?

Rogers leaned forward so his mouth was right in front of the microphone. “Drawing porn.” Gasps rippled through the crowd, but Rogers pressed on, unwavering. “Eight-pages. Jo-jo books. Blue-bibles. Two-by-fours. Not Tijuana bibles–that’s a newer term. And racist. This stuff wasn’t being hauled in over the border. We were making them ourselves. During the 30s, I can’t even count how many I made. I sold them for $3 to the printer, who sold them for more.

“There was a crack-down just before the war. Paper and ink are wartime necessities, and blue-bibles were a perfect target for arresting the publishers and commandeering their supplies. Times were lean, in those early days, before the Army let me in.”

He narrowed his eyes at the room. “Sex sells. It always has. As long as all parties are consenting adults, there’s nothing wrong with it. Limiting the freedom of speech of artists, clutching your pearls and erasing sexuality, restricting what was once an open and free website for portfolios and self-marketing– that’s wrong.”

“It’s art. Do you think classical painters included nudes because they were dedicated to anatomy?” Rogers shook his head, watching the faces around the room like he was enjoying their shock and horror. “Patrons wanted the same thing the buyers in my era did, and the same thing commissions request on the internet now. Art is about expression, and puritanism has no place there.”

Rogers leaned back and smiled at the audience. It was so sudden, so bright, it felt like a slap. 

Thank God Katie had kept her recorder on during that speech, because she hadn’t jotted down a single note.

“Thank you for the question, Ms. Kaufman. Who’s next?”

**Author's Note:**

> This is crack, but also not? Steve Rogers has no time for your controlling bullshit, thank u next.
> 
> I'm on [Tumblr](http://starknjarvis27.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
